


It All Changed In Dublin

by ddh1973



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-27 14:48:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6288754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddh1973/pseuds/ddh1973
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything is turned around when Ward is replaced by a lookalike in Dublin and escapes to help save everybody during the events of Season 1's finale.  Something happens that will break Skye's heart and cause some serious Skyeward angst all while dealing with the man that destroyed it all and finding out who he is.  Follows the events of season 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Dublin, Ireland November, 2013**

As Ward walked away from where he had left Skye at the bar and into the elevator, his senses started to tingle. He was alone in the elevator but every part of his training was telling him that something was wrong. As he stepped out of the elevator and down the hall to his room, a door close to his opened and the sight of John standing in the doorway confirmed his suspicions.

He knew his SO would respond to the message he had left telling him that he was done with Hydra and going to Fury. He just didn’t think the man would respond so quickly. Everything inside of him was screaming out, ‘don’t go in that room!’ but Ward ignored it as he walked into John’s hotel room.

As the door closed the sounds of a fight started and it wasn’t long after that Garrett opened the door and let a disheveled Ward out of the room. Only it wasn’t the Ward that went in there, he was passed out on the floor.

**Cybertek, May 2014**

As Skye stood there watching as the man she had fallen in love and betrayed her fight with Melinda May, the sight of another man that looked exactly like Grant Ward appeared beside her.

“Dammit, I wanted to kick that son of bitch’s ass!”

“What the hell is going on?”

“Garrett kidnapped me and had that sack of shit take my place in Dublin after I told him that I was done and going to Director Fury. I left you in the bar and didn’t make it to my room.”

“You never slept with May?”

Ward turned, his eyes wide as saucers, to face Skye before he ran down the hall.

“Help me stop the damn fight before she kills him. I need him to prove my story!”

Skye watched as the man in front of her, pulled out a gun and walk down to where May and ‘Ward’ were fighting.

A gunshot went off and Skye watched as the man calling himself the real Ward helped May overpower her opponent and dragged the one that had betrayed them towards a chair in the room and tied him up.

May was following, an uncharacteristic look of shock in her dark eyes.

“As much as he deserves to have his ass kicked, I need him to confirm my story, Agent May.”

“Who…”

“I’m the real Grant Ward and this sack of crap is who John Garrett put in my place because after Dublin, I was done with him and his crap. That staff opened my eyes to who he was and what he had done to me. I was going to Fury as soon as I could but Garrett stopped me."

"He lured me into the room beside mine and knocked me out so this jackass could take my place.”

The sound of the Ward tied to the chair laughing drew the attention of Grant, Skye and May before the latter punched him the jaw.

“He’s right. I’m the one who fucked you, May but just like the real Grant Ward, I only wanted Skye,” he turned to face Grant, smirking. “I overheard that entire conversation at the bar and you were a dumbass. Maybe if you had taken her up on her offer, none of this would have happened. Unlike you, I know what is like to kiss sweet Skye.”

Before he could finish antagonizing the three agents, fists came from three different directions, knocking the man out. May pulled out her phone and called Coulson.

“Tell Garrett we know about Dublin and that the real Ward is here to kick his ass.”

“Real Ward…”

“Coulson, Skye and I are with two Wards. One is tied to a chair and it seems took over for the Ward we first met on the plane. He did it to keep the real Ward from going to Fury about Hydra.”

“Agent May, how do you expect me to believe this?”

“Because the asshole tied to the chair just confirmed it.”

Coulson turned to face John Garrett, who had turned pale right as he had said the phrase “Real Ward.

“Melinda, tell Ward that I want to talk to him but before you do anything, restrain the Ward tied to the chair and make sure he doesn’t get away.”

* * *

A few hours later, everything has settled down and Fury, Coulson and Ward sit down in Coulson’s office of the Bus where the whole story of Garrett pulling him out of juvie and abandoning him in the woods of Wyoming along with everything else up until he was taken in Dublin comes out.

“What made you decide to confess everything to me and turn on Hydra?”

Ward turned to face both of his bosses; his caramel eyes haunted and took a deep breath before speaking.

“When I touched the Berserker staff, first and foremost a painful memory of my childhood came back to me. One that I had bottled up inside so I could do my job. Along with that came a desire to get control of my life for the first time and be done with the bullshit. I realized that Garrett had used me like he had done everybody else since Shield left him without an extraction team in Serbia. He brainwashed me into doing everything he wanted and I went along with him because I thought the son of bitch actually cared about me. He beat the hell out of me after any failed mission and I still went along with him. He had me so confused I didn’t know what way was up.”

“Okay, we will tell everybody about your double and how you were ambushed while trying to tell everybody the truth and prevent what happened to Shield,” Fury commented. “Then I want you to join White Angel’s team in top secret missions to bring down Hydra.”

“Director…”

“Phil, I am no longer Shield’s Director. You are but anything to do with White Angel is out of your jurisdiction, any of her missions are outside of Shield, they have to be. We will introduce her to your main team and nobody else.”

Fury stood up and left the office while Ward turned to Coulson, who was staring at the open doorway.

“Coulson, I thought White Angel was a myth.”

“She’s real Grant and if he is sending her after Hydra, then he wants me and the other agents to rebuild the agency and let her deal with them.”

“Coulson, I’m not here alone. I was hoping to leave Shield for good and actually have a life beyond being a spy.”

Coulson saw Skye standing outside the open door and had a feeling the girl was going to be hurt even more than when the man she had thought was Grant Ward had betrayed them.

“I fell in love with the nurse that helped me escape. She helped me deal with a lot of the issues that I hadn’t dealt with. I have asked her to marry me and want a life with her.”


	2. Eleanor

Skye sat on the bed in her new bunk at the Playground and tears falling down her cheeks as the conversation she had overheard in Coulson’s office the day before went through her mind. Especially the sentence: _ **I have asked her to marry me and want a life with her.** _

When she had seen Grant come running into the Cybertek and telling his story about being kidnapped by Garrett and a lookalike had taken his place, hope had started to fill her. Maybe there was a chance for the two of them to see what was there between them but that sentence had just about destroyed her.

\A knock on the door and the sight of Jemma Simmons standing there brought Skye back to reality.

“Skye, Coulson wants us to meet him in his office.”

“I’ll be right there. How’s Fitz?”

“He’s still in a coma. May and Trip had to stop Ward to keep him from going after his double for dropping the pod.”

“How’s it going in finding out who he really is?”

“We haven’t gotten any hits when we ran his DNA. We do know that he isn’t related to Ward, he doesn’t have a mask on to make him look like Ward. So John Garrett went to a lot of trouble to make sure this guy had plastic surgery to look like Ward in every way he could.”

“Is _**she**_ down there?”

“Skye…”

* * *

_**Earlier that morning, Coulson had brought all of them into his office where Ward had been sitting with a blue eyed blond in her mid-thirties.** _

_**Skye had stopped short at the sight of Ward and the woman with him, their fingers interlocked together as they sat side by side on the couch. She had to school her features to hide the pain she felt at seeing that.** _

_**“Good job,” May had whispered as Skye had walked over to stand beside her new SO.** _

_**“First and foremost, this is Agent Eleanor Covington. She is Ward’s fiancée and will be working here in the med bay as a nurse,” Coulson stated.** _

_**“Next, all of us on this base will be working towards rebuilding Shield and kept separate from the battle with Hydra. That has been assigned to a Shield legend. Ward will be working for White Angel.”** _

_**May and Trip both went silent as Skye and Simmons gaped at Coulson before the former asked the obvious question.** _

_**“Who’s White Angel?”** _

_**“I’m White Angel,” a soft Southern accent said from the doorway and an African American woman in her late fifties stood in the doorway to Coulson’s office.** _

_**The woman’s short cut gray hair and sensible pant suit fit her five foot six slender body to perfection as she walked over to stand beside Phil Coulson.** _

_**“Nobody but Fury, may he rest in peace, and Phil knew about me. Not even Agent Hill was told of my existence.  All of you have been brought in on the secret and I will only be known by my code name. I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to stop Hydra and that has become a lot easier now that Mr. Ward has decided to tell me what he wanted to tell Nick.”** _

_**Skye watched the woman’s mannerisms and felt a sense of awe in her presence. White Angel carried herself with an air of grace but gave off a ‘don’t even try’ it vibe that even had May in awe of her.** _

_**The meeting had ended and Ward had gotten up from where he was sitting, holding a hand out to Eleanor before wordlessly walking out of the Coulson’s office. He had followed White Angel down the hall and softly kissed Eleanor before leaving with his new boss.** _

* * *

Skye walked past the med bay and watched as Eleanor talked to a couple of agents that had been injured during the battle at Cybertek. Her blond hair shining in the light as it swung to her shoulders.

“Skye, stop doing this to yourself,” May firmly said as she stepped beside the young agent.

“Don’t send me to talk to that bastard in Vault D, May. I refuse. He and Garrett ruined everything and I hate him.”

Skye walked down the hall and into Coulson’s office and as May turned to follow her, a voice stopped her.

“She’s right; I wouldn’t have stood a chance with Grant if he had been allowed to go to Fury,” Eleanor commented quietly.  “If I thought it would work, I would have asked to be sent to another base but Grant has been tasked with being a liaison between Coulson and White Angel. He will be here and no matter how much Skye hates it, we are getting married,”

She turned around and left the hallway before going back to work.

“I wish it I could say I hate her just for Skye’s sake but she genuinely loves him,” Jemma commented.

“I know and Skye is going on what could have been. The thing is, Ward hasn’t talked to Skye since Cybertek and is keeping everything compartmentalized the way he was trained to do. What happens when Skye moves on, what kind of response might we get from him?”

Simmons and Trip, who had walked up to where the women were standing, both rolled their eyes at the drama coming their way before they all went down to Coulson’s office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be flashbacks to Ward and Eleanor's story in upcoming chapters. This is going to be a bumpy ride because Skye and Grant have yet to really talk face to face and there is still the matter of Ward's double in the basement. I have an idea of how to develop his story but I am still working it out in my head.
> 
> There will be a bit of a time jump where we get into the events of season 2.


	3. Who's In Vault D

_ **Two Days after the switch- November 2013** _

Grant felt like he was coming through a dense fog as he woke up in a hospital bed, restrained to it.

“Stay calm, they had you on a lot of medication to keep you asleep,” a sweet female voice said as she touched his hand gently.

His eyes focused on the blond haired, blue eyed woman wearing nurses’ scrubs and instantly tried to fight the straps holding him down.

“Agent Ward, please stop,” the woman pleaded desperately. “Dr. Sand will have to come back and sedate you and that is the last thing he wants. You are stuck here just like the rest of us are.”

“What is going on? The last thing I remember is…”

He paused as memories of Garrett and his lookalike ganging up on him swept through his mind. It had taken Garrett’s strength and the other man’s seemingly similar skills to Grant’s that led to him being overpowered by the two men.

“That son of a bitch: he trained someone and put them through plastic surgery to look and act the same way I do. I’m going to kill him!”

“Don’t talk like that, they have this room bugged!”

“Hydra would be idiots if they didn’t,” Grant commented. “So this is a Hydra facility, I would assume.”

“Yes,” the nurse quietly said before starting to leave. “Dr. Sand will be taking you for a therapy session in about an hour. Please don’t try to escape. It won’t work; they have too many safeguards in place to allow that to happen.”

Grant watched the nurse leave, wondering if his team was safe and what was happening.

‘I should have busted that son of bitch to Fury before I even got on that plane’

* * *

**October 2014- The Playground**

Grant was bone deep exhausted as he walked down the hallway for a meeting with Coulson about the mission to stop Hydra when he saw Eleanor in the med bay. She had just slammed the door to the supply cabinet closed. He knew from experience that his fiancée was downright furious about something and given the tears in her eyes, scared as well.

“Ellie, what’s wrong?”

He set his body to prepare for the impact of her rushing to him and held her as she trembled.

“Coulson is forcing Skye to talk to that jackass! Despite what she says, she isn’t ready to face him.”

Grant gently kissed Ellie before taking her hand and walking out of the med bay. He went into Coulson’s office and saw the Director, Agent May and one of the Koenig brothers watching the big screen as Skye talked to his double.

“What the hell is going on here?”

* * *

**Vault D**

“They said you would only talk to me, so talk,” Skye harshly said.

“I’m pretty sure that Grant Ward has told them everything they want to know about Hydra. I just wanted to see your face, Skye.”

The sight of a scar on his wrists didn’t even warrant a response from Skye as hatred filled her. She pushed a button on the tablet that would shut off the cameras.

“You sick son of bitch! You are taking pleasure in the fact that you destroyed so many lives. Fitz isn’t the same! Simmons has run away and left all of us but especially Fitz when he needs her the most. Don’t get me started on what you did to Ward. He spent months in a mental hospital because of you and Garrett. Unless you have something useful to say, I don’t want to hear another damn word from you.”

Skye went to push the button that turned the wall to his cell to white instead of clear and go up the stairs when his voice stopped her.

“Ask Grant about a Shield mission that took place in Saudi Arabia five years ago and the man he killed, that’s why I became him and took over his life. That’s his first clue.”

Skye didn’t say anything before leaving the Vault to the sight of a very furious Phil Coulson standing there along with May, Ward and Ellie.

“Don’t you ever turn the cameras off when you are in his cell; none of you are to be alone with that son of a bitch!”

Skye was visibly shaken as Ellie went over and hugged her.

“Skye, what did he say to you?”

“He gave me a clue about who he was,” Skye looked at Grant and whispered out. “He said that it was about a man you killed during a mission in Saudi Arabia. That was why he took over your life and it was a clue as to who he is.”

Grant swore under his breath as Trip who had overheard what was said as he walked over to where they were standing came to the same conclusion he had.

“Garrett bragged about a four thousand yard shot you made in a mission where a Saudi sold kidnapped teenage girls to the highest bidder as well as 0-8-4’s. That son of bitch told someone about what you did. He’s someone related to or had been friends with Omar Hasid.”

“That means Hydra has made a deal with Al-Qaeda,” Coulson stated, rubbing his temples at the headache this latest development had brought on.

“So you are saying that jackass downstairs is an Islamic extremist?”

“I’m saying that we need to keep him here and out of the press or all hell is going to break loose,” Coulson answered Ellie’s question.

Skye rushed down the hall to the closest bathroom and threw up, sobbing as thoughts of how close she had come to having sex with someone that not only had to ties with Hydra but also one of the most dangerous terrorists groups in the world that was responsible for 9/11. Everything went dark as she felt herself falling into oblivion unaware of what was going on around her.

* * *

The sound of voices arguing met Skye’s ears as she woke up in one of the beds in the med bay. She glanced over and saw a fierce argument taking place between Coulson and a woman she didn’t know. Two other men along with Ward and May were watching and ready to jump in if needed.

“It seems one of the new recruits tried to attack Grant until she was told that the man who killed Victoria Hand was downstairs in a cell. Grant held her off pretty good but didn’t try to fight her,” Ellie commented as she sat down beside the bed.

“He wouldn’t attack unless it was necessary. He taught...” Skye paused. “I can’t remember what Grant taught me or that imposter did.”

“Did you tell May that?”

“Yes. She thinks Ward needs to help her train me so they can figure out what ‘he’ might have done to mess up my training,” Skye commented. “How do you feel about that?”

Skye watched Ellie’s face as she processed the question. “Skye, what he felt for you didn’t die but he chose me and I have to trust him if I want to make our relationship work. You were a victim of this as much as Grant and I were. We have to present a united front or they win.”

“God, you sound like a Mary Sue in a fanfiction!”

Both women busted out laughing at Skye’s comment, drawing the attention of the group outside the window.

“Ok, how about this? I trust him but if you try anything, I will kick your ass.”

“That’s better,” Skye commented with a huge grin.

“As much as I wish it had been different, I won’t do that to him. As they say, you can’t make a heart love somebody.”

‘That’s what I’m afraid of,” Ellie thought to herself before leaving the room.

Skye started to get up and movee slowly from the bed making sure she gets comfortable standing before leaving the med bay. She waited until getting to her room before giving into the tears.

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t get mad at me, there had to be some serious angst to keep this story from becoming instant Skyeward. This Grant Ward has been away from team Bus, actually getting therapy at the hospital he was imprisoned at. He moved on to someone who helped him get his life back and heal from his past while everybody else experienced the events from episode 9 to where this story picks up.
> 
> Trust me, this story is still Skyeward, it is just going to take some time to get there and the Ward double is still going to play a part. The other woman won’t be a bitch or evil, she is just a good woman that fell in love with a man that needed her to save him.
> 
> I think Brett Dalton could knock a dual role out of the park and could play two different characters at the same time. If I thought Agents of Shield wanted to fix the damage they have done, it would be a way to fix it.


End file.
